One Last
by Cynder2013
Summary: Larry Blaisdell died. Larry Blaisdell is dead. Is it really that simple? No.


One Last

**One year before**

Larry is in his room staring at a wall. He's been doing this a lot lately. He has a lot to think about and the blank blue-painted drywall isn't distracting. Right now he's trying to figure out what he can do to improve his SAT scores. He has a football scholarship waiting for him, but he needs his writing and language scores to be above 510 to get it. He's doing senior year again, focusing on English, but he doesn't know what else to do. Maybe he can get Willow to tutor him? She's sure to get the highest SAT scores in Sunnydale High history. That's a plan, right?

It'll have to be a plan, because now he's distracted.

Larry wants a boyfriend. It's stupid how much he wants a boyfriend. Except it isn't, because more than half of the kids he started high school with didn't make it to graduation and he doesn't want to die without a real first love.

**One month before**

His name is Jason Blaisdell and he and Larry aren't related. They checked. Larry even asked Willow for help and her computer magic confirmed that they are not of the same Blaisdell bloodline. That's good, because Larry and Jason are head-over-heels in love.

They're at the beach. Jason is surfing. He tried to get Larry to join him but Larry is not confident about his ability to stay on a surfboard. Balance isn't his thing. At least, that's his excuse.

Jason returns to dry land after catching only a few waves. He shakes his head, sending drops of water flying from the ends of his dark blond hair. "I miss you out there."

Larry grins. "I like watching you surf."

The grin that Jason shoots back as he sits next to him on the blanket they've spread out on the sand makes the sun seem dim. Yeah, Larry is stupid in love with this guy.

"Is that all you like?" Jason leans forward and kisses Larry soft and slow. "Maybe I shouldn't mention that my roommate went home for the summer."

"Maybe," Larry says. "And maybe I should mention that my parents won't be home until eight and my house is a lot closer than UC Sunnydale."

"That I like." Jason leans in for another kiss.

Jason is still at Larry's house when Larry's parents get home. His mom just smiles and asks Jason to stay for dinner.

**One week before**

Larry is graduating this year. He got the SAT scores he needed, he got the football scholarship to UCLA, and so far he's managed to survive the school year, not that the thought even crosses his mind because he knows better than to bait fate like that.

He's going to prom with Jason. His mom took a few hundred of pictures of the two of them in their suits. Jason is wearing a blue tie. If anyone is staring at them as they dance it stops when a dark-haired older guy walks up to Buffy and starts dancing with her. Larry has never seen this guy before but if the Class Protector is dating him then he must be of the good.

Prom is bittersweet. It's a lot of fun and no one dies, but Jason has to leave the next day. His parents are forcing him to go with them on a mission trip to somewhere in South America. His classes are off for a week so in their eyes he has no excuse not to go. Larry sees him off at the airport and Jason promises to write to him. It's only a week, and then Jason will be back in Sunnydale for his final exams. But they both wish that Jason could be there for graduation,

**One day before**

Larry is so glad that Jason won't be at graduation. Xander is drilling the class on the battle tactics they'll be using at the ceremony tomorrow to stop the mayor from eating all of them after he turns into the demon.

Literally no one is surprised.

Larry is wondering if he'll be able to stop his parents from coming to graduation. He knows his grandmother will listen to him and his mom will listen to her, but his dad is stubborn. He wants to see the first person from his family to go to college graduate from high school, and nothing Larry can say is going to change his mind.

**One hour before**

People are going to die today. Larry thinks he might be one of them.

He put a letter on his desk before he left home this morning. It's addressed to Jason. It's a reply to the last letter that Jason sent him, one of two copies. The other one is in the mail already, on its way to his boyfriend with the message that he might die at graduation and he wants Jason to know that he loves him. If he survives, Larry will mail the second letter with a postscript saying that he made it. If he dies, maybe his parents will read it and understand why he lied about graduation being pushed back to tomorrow. They aren't coming, that's all that matters.

Friends greet each other and hide weapons under their graduation gowns. Larry is going to be sitting near the front thanks to his last name, so he passes by the bows and stakes and picks up a sword.

Xander is overseeing weapon distribution. He nods at Larry's choice. "That'll be good backup."

Larry frowns. "Backup?"

Xander points him towards the flamethrowers.

**One minute before**

The quad has become a sea of chaos. Some people are screaming, probably parents. All Larry can do is concentrate on the fight in front of him. One of a dozen flamethrowers is in his hands, burning the giant snake looming above them, the snake that used to be the mayor.

**One second before**

Pain.

**One second after**

Larry is staring down at his dead body as the battle rages around him.

**One minute after**

Sunnydale High School explodes.

**One hour after**

The paramedics, police, and firemen have arrived. The survivors of the battle are out in the street, getting their wounds tended to and watching the school burn. Larry is there, somehow, but he isn't. No one can see him, but he's not confused. He's not stupid. He knows he's dead. He knows he's not the only one. He saw at least three other people die before the school was blown up. He's just glad that his mom or dad wasn't one of them.

**One day after**

They still haven't found the bodies. Larry can get to his own burnt, broken, nearly unrecognizable body easily, but living people can't just walk straight through the rubble. He watches from the top of one of the worker's cars while they shift through the mess, occasionally uncovering part of an arm or a leg. Larry's body is mostly intact. He didn't die near anything that could crush him and he was far enough from the building that the explosion just peppered him with shrapnel instead of tearing him to bits. He did get pretty burnt though, and he hopes that won't make it too hard to get his body back to his parents.

The rubble shifts drastically after nightfall. A hand covered with dust and ash pushes aside a chunk of concrete. Harmony claws her way out of the ruins of their school, tries to brush off her shredded clothing, and jumps on the man staring at her in shock. Larry watches as she sinks her new fangs into his neck and gulps down mouthfuls of blood. Then he jumps off the car and walks towards the other men who are too far away to see what's happening to their comrade. There isn't anyone alive under there and they know it. They may as well let him scare them off so they don't get eaten too.

**One week after**

Larry's parents get his body. It's a closed casket funeral. He's not as pretty a corpse as Harmony.

His mom cries. So does his grandmother. His dad is trying to be strong for them, but Larry knows it's hard for him too. He's seen his dad at home, reading the letter Larry wrote for Jason and cursing and crying in equal amounts.

Jason is at the funeral too. He tries to make a speech but chokes. He doesn't read anything that he has written down, which is a lot from what Larry is able to read over his shoulder. He manages to say three words. "I love him."

"I love you too," Larry says.

Jason can't hear him.

**One month after**

Jason still can't hear him.

**One year after**

Larry is haunting Jason's dorm room. His boyfriend has a room to himself this year. That's good because it means that Larry hasn't had an audience when he tries to pick up a pencil. He's been trying all year and he's still only able to hold it for a few seconds before it slips through his fingers. He doesn't have anything better to do though, so he keeps at it.

There isn't any paper lying on Jason's desk. He keeps his room too clean for that. So Larry writes directly on the desk, working for hours to write his message. He loses count of the number of times the pencil falls through his hand. It takes him all day to finish.

Jason walks into his room with an armful of notes that he has to study for his next exam. He goes to his desk to put them down and promptly drops them. Papers and notebooks spill onto the floor. They're going to be a pain to put back in order, but right now Jason doesn't care. He stares at the desk. A strangled cry escapes his lips.

It's Larry's handwriting. Four words, pencil on wood.

_I love you too_


End file.
